Christ Was A Stranger
More than one Greek word is used for alienated in the N.T. Xenosmeans foreigner or stranger, and involves alienation from a person or thing. Linked with aliens in the O.T., was the added dimension of separation where the person received no inheritance. Another dimension was of one who showed hospitality.[1] Christ Jesus spoke of Himself as “Xenos”. When He returns in His glory, He will divide all the nations of the earth – separating the sheep from the goats. Jesus said, of those who showed Him hospitality,
“For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in.” The righteous respond, “when did we see you a stranger and take You in?” To those on His left, He says, “I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.” They also asked, “when did we see you a stranger?” (Matthew 25:35, 38, 43, 44; NKJV).
The Bible teaches us to treat strangers with kindness. Christ had a special love for those alienated from society; He calls us to the same lifestyle. John says: “Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers;” (3 John 1:5, NASB). This principle was so important, Christ identified Himself physically as a stranger. He also identifies with you and me, as we experience deep inner alienation, victimization, rejection, and being cut off, or isolated from others.
“He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him…By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of My people?” (Isaiah 53:3,8, NASB).
We cannot imagine the rejection and alienation Jesus, the Creator of mankind, experienced as evidence of His unfailing love for us (Romans 5:8-10). He identified with us in our alienation, as He took our sins, our wounds, our brokenness, and pain upon Himself. As He died, His hands grasped all our anguish, isolation, fears, rejection, wounds, and failures, and took them into the pit. When He arose from the grave – His hands were empty! He triumphed. Because of His blood, He is able to set us free from the curse of alienation. But we choose if we experience the freedom to walk with Him in newness of life, or if we despise the gift He purchased with His life, preferring to grovel in alienation and pain, bitter and resentful of others.
When the focus of our woundedness is emotional, we embrace lies which make us feel alienated from our personhood, alienated from others, and alienated from God. Acting out of feelings, we are blinded to the truth we are to become alienated from sin, alienated from the enemy, and alienated from the kingdom of darkness. Passions, easily aroused, when awakened, create longings in our heart that dull our longing for truth. We reap to whatever passions we sow. Fleshly passions war against the life of Christ within us, so we reap a harvest of alienation, guilt, shame, and condemnation.
“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; (Ephesians 2:19, KJV). Paul states you are not a stranger or a foreigner (“foreigner” also means alien or stranger). You are citizens with the saints, set apart, consecrated unto God. The word is used of the “saints”. You are a saint too! Loved and set apart unto Himself, you belong to His Kingdom.
True Believers in Christ are strangers. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13, KJV). Stranger is translated “pilgrim” or “stranger”.[2] But this alienation happens when the life of Christ is birthed in us, and we are estranged from the kingdom of darkness, but welcomed into the light. We are motivated to become a stranger and a pilgrim, alienated from the world, because we love the Lord, and desire to move deeper into His Kingdom of Light. In 1 Peter 1:1, persecuted Christians, because of faith in Christ were driven to other lands, where they were indeed strangers and pilgrims. Peter says because we are strangers and pilgrims, and have experienced God’s mercy, our behavior is to be influenced by abstinence from fleshly cravings, and desires which war against the soul. (1 Peter 2:11). We should embrace alienation from the world, from Self, and from the lusts of the flesh, because it means we live, and move, and have our being inside the perimeters of God’s unfailing love.
[1]G3581 – xenos ξένος, adjective (p.r.). 1. Foreigner, stranger: alien (from person or thing), without knowledge of/share in, new; receives & entertains another hospitably (host).
[2]G3927 – parepidēmos παρεπίδημος, adjective from G3844 (of, near) & G1927 (stranger). One who comes from a foreign country; a stranger; sojourning in a strange place, a foreigner; one who sojourns on earth.
